Apple iOS 6 vs. Android: Google has some work to do

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As expected, Apple announced iOS 6 at WWDC yesterday, and it looks like a solid update to an already excellent operating system. Apple has beefed up its Siri voice-activated assistant, made nice with Facebook, developed its own maps solution, and more. The clear competition for Apple in the phone space is Google’s Android platform.

While Android lagged behind in both design and features for a long time, the last few years have seen the two operating systems coming closer together. After iOS 6, though, Google has some ground to make up. Let’s see where everyone stands.

Maps without Google

Since the iPhone came out in 2007, Google Maps had been on the home screen. That’s going to change when iOS 6 arrives. Apple has proven the rumors true and announced its own Google-free map solution. Apple’s new maps have over 100 million business listings and are tied in with Yelp. There is also built-in turn-by-turn navigation that can be activated from the lock screen.

Google Maps on Android is fabulous and has had very good turn-by-turn navigation since late 2009. Having not seen the Apple solution working in the wild, it’s hard to say if it will be a match for Google Maps. As it turns out, much of the data Apple is using comes from TomTom, which should ensure at least competent directions.

For all the good things Apple is adding to iOS maps, it seem to be missing a Street View equivalent. At any rate, this is an upgrade for iOS because it brings important features it previously lacked. Siri is also brought in here with integrated navigation voice commands.

Android has a big lead in maps, and I don’t expect Apple to hit it out of the park on the first try.

Google’s Facebook spat is getting old

Android has a good reputation for being very open to integrating services with Android. Contact sync from third-party sources has been a part of that for a long time, and it’s really handy for those of us with a lot of social contacts. Last year, Google announced that because of what it deemed “unfair” data sharing practices by Facebook, it was pulling contact sync from the core of Android.

Apple, on the other hand, has just given Facebook a more prominent role in iOS 6. Much as it did with Twitter in iOS 5, there will be Facebook Like and Post buttons around the OS that facilitate easy sharing to the world’s largest social network. Say what you will about Facebook, people use it — a lot. It just makes sense to have Facebook as a part of the OS.

Stock Google phones might be missing Facebook sync, but most OEMs add some Facebook integration with custom skins like Sense and TouchWiz. However, it seldom works the same from one device to another. Google’s insistence that Facebook’s policies are unfair is surely keeping more meaningful social features from being added to the platform.

You can make the argument that Facebook is being unfair, but it doesn’t matter. Apple is giving users what they want, and Google isn’t. This important feature should not be left up to OEMs to patch in after the fact. It’s nice that Google+ is built-in on Android, but most people don’t have friends that use Google+. You know what people use? Facebook.

Safari and Chrome

Safari on the iPhone really kicked off the age of WebKit on mobile. Apple proved that the open source WebKit engine could be fast and efficient on a small pocketable device, and other devices followed suit. Google just released Chrome Beta for Android recently with some fantastic and unique-for-mobile features, but Safari on iOS 6 will catch up.

One of my favorite things about Chrome on Android is that it syncs my tabs, bookmarks, and omnibox history. Safari already had bookmark sync through iCloud, but iOS 6 will add tab sync to the mix. Google’s Chrome account syncing is a little more robust, but Apple is going a long way to keep your devices from feeling like islands in the internet sea.

Google’s Chrome browser is safe on the syncing front, but Apple has also announced a new offline mode for Safari. Users will be able to save any page for offline reading. Android does actually have this function built into version 4.0, but it’s not part of Chrome. Offline caching is supported by the stock Browser app — that vestigial bit of code that served as the browser before the Chrome beta came out. I imagine that Google will add this feature to Chrome at some point, but iOS 6 could soon be ahead on this one. Apple also added a photo upload interface to Safari, but Chrome already does this.

Smarter phone

Apple has added a handful of really interesting phone features, some of which are already present on Android. Perhaps most prominent is the SMS reply option for rejecting calls. iOS 6 will let you kill a call, and send a canned SMS to the caller to let them know why you didn’t answer. Android added this in Ice Cream Sandwich, so Apple isn’t treading new ground here — just catching up.

Apple’s other phone improvements are all based around keeping disturbances away. The new “Do not disturb” mode can be enabled to keep new calls from coming in on a schedule of your choosing. There is also a whitelist you can configure of people who can always get through.

Google does have most of this functionality, but it’s not part of the core of Android. Rather, much of it is in Google Voice. This obviously requires you live in a country that has Google Voice and use it as your primary number. This is not terribly convenient, and means Apple will have the better feature set for phone functionality.

Tagged In

Even if Google does nothing to catch up, Android is still better and more functional. Apple needs a few more years to match Android in its functionality, so Android is just fine how it is. Nothing against iOS, but really, it can’t match Android in functionality.

android will always have more features the iPhone has never been about have the most features

Oliver Petruzel

“After iOS 6, though, Google has some ground to make up.”

“In some places, Apple is clearly pulling ahead. Siri is unmatched on Android, and the closest competitor, S Voice, is only offered on a single phone. Apple is adding more social tools with Facebook and Shared Photo Streams, which brings it even with Google. Moving away from Google Maps is a bold move, and it might be a little rough at first. Still, turn-by-turn directions will be a much appreciated addition that again brings iOS to parity with Android. Google has a lot to prove with Android Jelly Bean.”

The statements quoted above don’t make much sense and appear to contradict eachother a bit.

iOS6 is/was Apple playing catch-up, not the other way around. Of the supposed “200 new features,” the sub-list of major changes — those that were featured at WWDC and on the iOS6 website — are almost ALL old news for Android (and even WP7) users.

— Siri? OK, Apple wins this one…easily. However, Siri isn’t new — they simply added a few new features. I suspect that Google will catch up with Siri soon enough, but this does remain one of the select few areas where Google is behind Apple.

— Passbook? OK, Apple wins this one. The app sounds cool, but I’d have to test to be sure.

— Facebook integration? Check. (Android has all kinds of integration — just about every social app, email service, photo service, etc. — through the use of Intents. While the Facebook vs. Google spat has certainly reduced the integration with that particular service, the fact that 3rd-party apps and file explorers can hook into and share with ANY social or cloud service is incredibly more powerful than the integration of one specific social network)http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/intents/intents-filters.html

— Facetime over 3G? While Google doesn’t use the same proprietary app, there have been many VOIP-over-3G apps available for Android (and Apple, even) for years. Didn’t Apple state last year that they were going to try to make Facetime a free cross-platform standard? I guess they lied. Who the hell wants to use a VOIP client that only works with other devices of the same brand!? Once again, meh.

— “Reply with message” and “send to voicemail” added to phone app? Check. (requires 3rd-party apps on Android, but it’s still old news… and VERY minor)

— Improved accessibility? OK, they may have Google beat on this one, but I’d have to see a comparison and take someone’s word for it. (I simply don’t use or know anything about the accesibility features for those with disabilities)

— Find my phone? OK, here’s another one that’s actually nice to see included by default; however, the functionality itself has been available on Android devices for years via 3rd-party apps.

— “find my friends”? Check. There are a number of Android apps that help you put your location on the map and send it to, or share it with, a friend — even in real time. Even better, many of these apps are not device-specific (see the VOIP issue above).

…

Ryan, the implications that Apple has somehow been ahead of Google on the software front, or that they will be once iOS6 is released, is simply ridiculous. Many of these “improvements” and “new features” are simply proprietary implementations of apps that are already available in Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. At the same time, many of those that are now built into iOS6 are not OS-agnostic, so choosing to use them over the 3rd-party apps will actually result in LESS functionality. Still others have been at the core of Android for years.

I’m not exactly sure which of the two OS’ you think is behind (see the confusing quotes above), but I do think that the entire iOS6 update is (mostly) an underwhelming pile of 2010/2011 functionality.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed/well-thought-out comment.

Oliver Petruzel

LOL, sorry about that! I just started typing and didn’t want to skip anything…

Why is my post flagged for review now?! Was it too long? Too many edits? (I was proofreading and making minor changes, so I hit EDIT a few times… would that flag it?) Did I accidentally hit the “F” and flag it myself?

Honestly, not sure. Disqus works in weird and wonderful ways. It doesn’t show as needing moderation in the control panel. I can’t imagine that people would have flagged it as spam…

So yeah, maybe something to do with how many edits you made — but who knows :)

Oliver Petruzel

LOL, it’s allll good. I hope you don’t mind that I re-posted it then! ;)

Ricardo Mota Freitas

I’d like your comparision more detailed, in relation to WP 7.5, or soon to be WP 8

Regards, and congrats for your 2 cents

HeavyLoads

THANK YOU OLIVER – for doing what I was going to do and saving me the keystrokes. As I read through that, I couldn’t help but think (“but… my phone *already* does that”). I left iOS for ICS for a plethora of reasons, the sum of which are that Android is lightyears ahead of iOS feature-wise. I’ve had both phones, and both are fantastic phones in their own right, but iOS, while very polished, simply lacks the robustness of Android. Weather on my home screen? Contact integration? Google Navigation? All things Apple stinks at. Even their ripoff of the notification bar is still behind Android’s. Their simply two different ecosystems altogether. Apple wins the hardware front, and Siri is intriguing, but still not as useful as it is “cool”. Until Apple completely revamps its UI and adds live widgets, I won’t consider going back.

Jeff Edwards

I agree 100%. Before iP5 came out, the literal hundreds of websites dedicated to what everyone *hoped* would be in iOS6 was a who’s who list of what Android already had, and in some models, has had for quite some time. They had TV spots touting their noise cancelling microphone…something my original Droid X had almost 3 years ago. I briefly worked for AT&T and while Siri really IS nifty and well done (but falls WAY behind now that Jelly Bean has introduced Google Now, clearly superior), more than 80% of apple users stop using it after the 2nd month. Entirely. There will always be things that one phone does that another doesn’t, and the problem is how too many users have come to rely on that one or two things to the exclusion of all others, when in reality, they CAN do without it, and in many instances can find the equivilant in the Google Play store OR apples app market.
The truth of the matter is this: BOTH systems are good. Both do remarkable things. With that being said, iOS looks absolutely stale (even on a brilliant retina display) because it looks essentially unchanged since the very first phone came out. Android has undergone some major overhauls–not because the system did not work, but because the users demanded new and exciting things, and keeping the screen absolutely unchanged certainly didn’t lead anyone to think that anything different had actually happened.
What Android simply cannot compete with is apples absolute command of marketing. They have convinced–absolutely–their fan base that their phones are better–just because. And using any other product is tantamount to disloyalty. I’ve had arguments with iPhone users that Android had speech to text before apple did (I was right), and yet they just REFUSE to accept it, even given proof.
Here’s what matters–the ONLY thing that matters: what do YOU like? If you prefer iOS, go for it. If you prefer Android, great. Perception is everything, and both platforms provide a LOT for the consumer. But despite my obvious and clear preference for Android, I also know that it isn’t for everyone. Go for what YOU want and screw everyone else…including me.

Jeff Edwards

I agree 100%. Before iP5 came out, the literal hundreds of websites dedicated to what everyone *hoped* would be in iOS6 was a who’s who list of what Android already had, and in some models, has had for quite some time. They had TV spots touting their noise cancelling microphone…something my original Droid X had almost 3 years ago. I briefly worked for AT&T and while Siri really IS nifty and well done (but falls WAY behind now that Jelly Bean has introduced Google Now, clearly superior), more than 80% of apple users stop using it after the 2nd month. Entirely. There will always be things that one phone does that another doesn’t, and the problem is how too many users have come to rely on that one or two things to the exclusion of all others, when in reality, they CAN do without it, and in many instances can find the equivilant in the Google Play store OR apples app market.
The truth of the matter is this: BOTH systems are good. Both do remarkable things. With that being said, iOS looks absolutely stale (even on a brilliant retina display) because it looks essentially unchanged since the very first phone came out. Android has undergone some major overhauls–not because the system did not work, but because the users demanded new and exciting things, and keeping the screen absolutely unchanged certainly didn’t lead anyone to think that anything different had actually happened.
What Android simply cannot compete with is apples absolute command of marketing. They have convinced–absolutely–their fan base that their phones are better–just because. And using any other product is tantamount to disloyalty. I’ve had arguments with iPhone users that Android had speech to text before apple did (I was right), and yet they just REFUSE to accept it, even given proof.
Here’s what matters–the ONLY thing that matters: what do YOU like? If you prefer iOS, go for it. If you prefer Android, great. Perception is everything, and both platforms provide a LOT for the consumer. But despite my obvious and clear preference for Android, I also know that it isn’t for everyone. Go for what YOU want and screw everyone else…including me.

Mauricio Dominguez Diaz del Ca

Great post, the title is a flat out lie, and, as always, it’s Apple who’s playing catchup, not the other way around. Even with WP who has most (if not all – except for SIRI, but who cares- )of the “new” features announced, really deep FB integration (plus twitter, LinkedIn, Exchenge, Windows Live, etc) tutn by turn navigation (via Nokia Drive). Find my phone, I can log in into my WindowsLive account and get exact location of my phone, plus remote wipe, call it, GPS, etc. Share photos? I can share every single pic via any medium I want straight from the camera. So, as always, Apple rips stuff from its competitors, puts an “i” before the name, and bingo…

that may be the case for some things but, generally, Apple ends up with the easiest to use implementation

Yuniverse

I’ve used both platforms, but personally i prefer iOS for various reasons. I do like many features in Android, however. I hate it when people seem to ignore advantages/disadvantages of their preferred platform and disses the other side relentlessly.

Your post, however, has one of the better articulated arguments for either sides. Thanks for the “two cents”.

Mark Najjar

This was very helpful in making my decision to either stay with Android systems or switch to I phone. I still may jump ship to I phone but at least now I have good reasons to do so. Thank You

The title is “Google has some work to do” yet every one of the bullet points starts with a statement that says Google already has or had been doing that feature, before Apple, so where do they need to catch up exactly?

exactly, actually Apple is just catching up with Android not the other way round.

since android and recently Windows phone, Apple is catching up and copying features from android and from Jailbreak community.

Jeff Jones

Maybe by “has some work to do” the author meant “in order to maintain the same amount of lead, since iOS 6 has almost caught up, Google has some work to do”

Luke Formosa

You titled this article “google has some work to do” and then proceeded to fill it with points that say how apple has caught up with what android has had for years.

My extremetech live bookmark has moved a few inches closer to the recycle bin as a result.

Oliver Petruzel

This article appears to contradict itself several times over…

iOS6 is/was Apple playing catch-up, not the other way around. Of the supposed “200 new features,” the sub-list of major changes — those that were featured at WWDC and on the iOS6 website — are mostly old news for Android users.

— Siri? OK, Apple wins this one…easily. However, Siri isn’t new — they simply added a few new features. I suspect that Google will catch up with Siri soon enough, but this does remain one of the select few areas where Google is behind Apple.

— Passbook? OK, Apple probably wins this one. The app sounds cool, but I’d have to test it to be sure.

— Facebook integration? Check. (Android has all kinds of integration — just about every social app, email service, photo service, etc. — through the use of Intents. While the Facebook vs. Google spat has certainly reduced the integration with that particular service, the fact that 3rd-party apps and file explorers can hook into and share with ANY social or cloud service is incredibly more powerful than the integration of one specific social network)http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/intents/intents-filters.html

— Facetime over 3G? While Google doesn’t use the same proprietary app, there have been many VOIP-over-3G apps available for Android (and Apple, even) for years. Didn’t Apple state last year that they were going to try to make Facetime a free cross-platform standard? I guess they lied. Who the hell wants to use a VOIP client that only works with other devices of the same brand!? Once again, meh.

— “Reply with message” and “send to voicemail” added to phone app? Check. (requires 3rd-party apps on Android, but it’s still old news… and VERY minor)

— Improved accessibility? OK, they may have Google beat on this one, but I’d have to see a comparison and take someone’s word for it. (I simply don’t use or know anything about the accesibility features for those with disabilities)

— Find my phone? OK, here’s another one that’s actually nice to see included by default; however, the functionality itself has been available on Android devices for years via 3rd-party apps.

— “find my friends”? Check. There are a number of Android apps that help you put your location on the map and send it to, or share it with, a friend — even in real time. Even better, many of these apps are not device-specific (see the VOIP issue above).

…

Ryan, the implications that Apple has somehow been ahead of Google on the software front, or that they will be once iOS6 is released, are kinda ridiculous. Many of these “improvements” and “new features” are simply proprietary implementations of apps that are already available in Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. At the same time, many of those that are now built into iOS6 are not OS-agnostic, so choosing to use them over the 3rd-party apps will actually result in LESS functionality. Still others have been at the core of Android for years.

I’m not exactly sure which of the two OS’ you think is behind (see the confusing quotes above), but I do know that the entire iOS6 update is (mostly) an underwhelming pile of 2010/2011 functionality; and it’s also clear that Android is well ahead of Apple in terms of functionality, flexibility, and innovation.

Just my extensive two cents… ;)

hot_spare

Extremetech — wow what a name?? specially because there seems to be nothing extreme about the quality of writing. Is this the best you could do? i will only say good luck surviving past 2012 with such pathetic quality.

Cameron Cole

Google really doesn’t need to catch up and I think what is missed is the Google philosophy. Android isn’t meant to have every bell and whistle. It is meant to be a powerful open platform that allows manufacturers, developers and users to extend the device experience the way they see fit.

Apple’s philosophy is to control the ecosystem and build a mobile OS that offers a great out of the box feel. To this end Apple buys or “steals” ideas from apps then bakes them into their OS and in some cases prevent apps from entering their ecosystem.

mori bund

Why is everybody still buying into this Siri/S Voice-hype?
I mean, it’s a nice toy for a little while, but when the “new feature”-factor wears off…
Show me anybody who still uses Siri after the first month.

Curtis Quintal

I still use it.. its easier to search the web, set calendar appointments, set timers, call people and other things, I dont have to go in open up an app and do it, i just tell that b*tch to do the work for me. I call her a b*tch too, it still entertains me…

janesa13

Let’s break this down based on who’s catching up to whom. Mind you, all of this below are quoted from your article.

Maps: “Android has a big lead in maps, and I don’t expect Apple to hit it out of the park on the first try.”
Google 1 – Apple 0

Facebook Sync: “Apple is giving users what they want, and Google isn’t.” You also mentioned that Google is open to sync with other sites as well and has been doing it consistently. But I’ll give Apple this.
Google 1 – Apple 1

Smarter Phone (does sending canned sms qualify as smarter? not so sure): “Sms..Android added this in Ice Cream Sandwich, so Apple isn’t treading new ground here”
“Do not disturb…Google does have most of this functionality” I don’t care whether this function is in google voice app or baked in (which google already does in 4.0 btw). The point is Google already has this.
Google 3 – Apple 1

Voice Control: “Siri clobbers Android” Most (unbiased) review have shown that both are gimmicks at the moment. It’s painful to trigger search in android 4.0? Are you kidding me? There is a default google search bar at the top of ALL home screen with the microphone icon in it. I diggress, I’ll give apple this.
Google 3 – Apple 2

Shared Photos: “These are two different approaches to the same problem, and I can’t say which one is better.” Android has been able to share photos to any app straight from gallery menu since way back in froyo. iOS5 can’t even do this without iCloud. Auto sync? Apple caught up in iOS5 finally.
Google 3 – Apple 2

Conclusion: Change your blog name to Extreme Apple.

Eddie Brown

Weird article, everything you announced that ios6 now has, had an equivalent functionality on Android already, perhaps not in the same manner, but Android already had it. To me that means that Apple has finally caught up with Gingerbread. A compelling argument can be made that Android suffers from fragmentation, but to a degree so does Apple. They rail against Android for being fragmented, but in Apple’s world, the new functionality is still limited to certain (newer) devices. Isn’t that the same thing?

“After iOS 6, though, Google has some ground to make up.”
but then you go on to explain that all these revolutionary advancements have been on android for quite some time…
granted, not with the same polish and fancy UI that apple has , but none the less…

so, keep siri, i have iris, keep the closed source proprietary locked down environment. ill enjoy my open source goodness…. and ill do it faster.

Danial Broderick

I’ve just removed extremetech from my bookmarks and have unsuscribed from this websites RSS Feed. I’m astonished by the clear and unceremonious anti-google, pro-apple bias found in Extremetech’s articles this year. SERIOUSLY. This headline is extremely sensationlised; the content of the article contradicts it in every way. A complete non-sequitor.

Mr. iRyan, thank you for your article. I got a good chuckle out of it. Pull you head out of the iHole that it’s in. Even BB has more advanced features than the new iOS. This thing is only suited for 13 year old girls who listen to too much Bieber! I hope you have a day job!

barBEARianS

It’s hilarious that you don’t see the irony in your post. Only immature, insecure teenagers post that the iPhone is “only suited for 13 year old girls”.

Be careful, Oliver; Sebastian might offer you a job!
Agreed. There are too many cases of iOS adding a feature that temporarily puts it ahead than to just claim that Android needs to ‘catch up.’ Siri was a selling point of the iPhone 4, before they “updated” it to have it only on 4S.

Mark Curwick

You all are reading way too much into the article’s title. I feel it was a great title because it got me to read the article. One among the many that pass before my eyes daily. It would have even been better if it was something like “Apple gives birth to Google’s Alien Baby” or “Android Sucks, iOS6 Rocks!”. Who could resist reading such thought provoking articles?

P.S. My cell phones have had a do-not-disturb feature since 1990. It is sometimes called the OFF button.

woody188

I’d be interested in seeing how your OFF button white-listed selected contacts to allow them to still ring through to you. Only law enforcement agencies have that access to remotely activate a phone that was turned off and only since the years after 9/11/2001.

woody188

I’ve used both iOS and Android. Both seem to be pretty equal at this point. iOS usually seems to be more snappy than Android so far as actual usage. And I’ve never had the sync problems on iOS I have experienced on Android. Nothing is more frustrating then opening your contacts to find them gone and being told to “pull” the battery while the device is on to hard reset it. (Try to pull the battery out of a Motorola Droid Razr. What a PITA!) Apple seems to have better support as well. So I’d say for the non-technically inclined and those that don’t want to mess around “under the hood,” iOS is the best choice.

It seems like most people call Android “robust” due to it’s open architecture, but it seems like iOS has every app Android does, so maybe someone can explain what “robustness” is when talking about their OS? Pretty sure anything could be done on either OS.

Michelle Rogers

iOS has Tasker? or anything even remotely similar? And, that’s just the first one I thought of “off the top of my head”.

woody188

You may note I wrote that a year ago. How was Tasker 1.3 on Android 2.3? Not so great…

Don’t misunderstand, I really like my Android 4.2.2. It’s come along way in a year.

I hate these articles. I mean you try to compare iOS to Android is a compplete joke. the iProducts are a software hardware intergrated solution like blackberry Android is a fragmented so called open source. Not one Android device is the same period.

Just like you can hardly find laptops that are the same. The more accurate comparison would be a Galaxy vs an iPhone 4s. Simply put there are to many versions of Android out to make any claim. Yet almost all iphones run the same version. The features that most people talk about on Andriod are third party apps and rooted apps the features the author writes about are native.

The error of this article and the comments below is that the writer has not or can possibly compare all the Android versions along with the overlays from each company that runs it. The comments below are mostly about what you can do with this or that app. This article is discussing what google has released and what apple has released period.

For my 2 cents nothing can compare to an iPhone because it is fully intergrated into the entertainment ecosystem. It connects native to most home entertainment devices and cars. Every company sells an iPhone accesory. Simply put when you buy an iPhone it will work with almost everything you own. When you by an Andriod based phone you can only hope. When you upgrade an iPhone everything goes with it. You repurchase nothing. Not so much for Droid phones.

Cd Corbin

Love these articles. At the end of the day it comes down to preference. Some people prefer ios while others Android. One is not better than the other (although U cant tell the fanatics of either that). Its preference. Some people will find ios to be user friendly while others will say the same about Android. I like both. Each plays a role in my life and I look forward to even more amazing upgrades and new features.

i dont see to much improvement in IO 6, i dont know ever fi its worth i update

Aadam Gibson

If we are compare android and iOS, then android always be first to introduce latest featured applications but when Apple does something, usually they’ve done a pretty good job of making it incredible!

Tristan Wiley

Android has nothing to catch up on…. Androids operating system already had over 1000 (I think 1000) features the iOS 6 has only just added.

Matei Irimia

Android will never beat the IOS, BECAUSE the android has so many platforms and resolutions, so apps will never reach optimisation for all phones, where ios already has…. I had a galaxy s2, and more than 25% paid third party apps kept crashing like hell, i was very very annoyed, since I payed a lot for them, and the updates didnt fix the crashes … but now i have an iphone 4s, and I have a feeling I won’t experience a crash for a LONG, VERY LONG time. Sorry for my bad english.

Google is a large stumbling company like Microsoft and Yahoo. Once innovative, now just large. Apple too is sitting on its laurels but about to be devoured. But Samsung Electronics (SEC) is nothing like Google. SEC is gigantic, yet unstoppably lean, as Intel and the Japanese found out after being obliterated time and again, from memory to phones to refrigerators to plasma Tvs. When SEC gets in, everyone gets out, and SEC takes over. The West quakes in fear of Chinese, yet Koreans are seen by Chinese themselves as far more aggressive than Chinese. SEC is the stuff of legends, the most aggressive and capable of the Koreans, and never do they stop for air, they just pounce and everyone else cries.
Thats just how it works. Chinese included, yet they are too wise to pick a fight with Samsung. Poor dumb and defenseless Apple, resorting to lawsuits as a last resort. Google is next if it can’t get its act together or doesn’t move out of Samsung’s way.

Dawn Kelley

People who drive think a map is a map, but I walk, bus, and use other transportation means to get from place to place. When another map besides Google can take into account all possibilities for travel, including public transportation and biking directions, then it will beat Google maps for me.

Nothing mentioned here really makes me want to leave Android. It’s still working smashingly for all my needs at a better price. Apple is still the flashy choice for the sake of flashy choice in my eyes, practically there’s just more access to Android in the smartphone/tablet world and I have yet to fail to find an app that handles my needs in the smartphone/tablet world of Android.. My Android tablet has yet to fail me and my favorite study app, in fact, is only on Android (pop quiz).

Siri, is that really such a big deal for anyone beyond being a cool toy? (minus a girl I know who’s blind and loves Apple products, for her Siri is an amazing thing). However, she belongs to a very small minority for whom Siri actually makes the phone easier to use. However, she’d been using accessibility stuff on her Apple products before Siri.

This title is biased and based on the facts, unfounded. Apple iOS5 was a 90% rip off of Android.. The other 10% of stuff was weak (iMessage fail)iOS6 is Apples attempt of a “screw you” to google with their own maps app and removal of youtube, but again they are working with version 1.0 and google is on version 6.0. Reinventing the wheel at this point is going to screw their own users more. There also is no Apple equivalent of Youtube.

Chrome is the most popular browser in the world now and Android has full tab sync across chrome on phone or any other OS.

Facebook and all social integration has been the founding point of Android since v1.0 so that is already a win.

So just because Apple makes its own under par map app and finally adds some proper facebook integration.. “Google has some work to do” ?

Seems like Google already finished their work and Apple is copying their answers.

Stephen Ward

the author should do a little more research before writting crap like this, he talks says that Google has a lot to prove with Android Jelly Bean, but its already out before IOS 6 and its actualy Apple who is copying android fuctions to catch up to android . 45% of Apple fans questioned are disappointed with IOS 6 and think it should have been an IOS 5.2. one of the biggest things that have pissed people of is the lack of a youtube app. I’ve got a nexus running jelly bean and an Iphone 4s running IOS 6 beta, and I find that although some of the anoying problems like having to type a password into Appstore every time you do an update have been sorted out, im still disapointed with IOS 6. I was hoping for some kind of ability to use widgets but we still can’t do this. IOS is starting look very old and tired. Android on the other hand has always been more functional and is now starting to look really good as well and now runs very smooth and fast. I can’t wait for the next version of Android as its starting to look like a very mature mobile operating system. It will always be easier for Apple to make IOS run smoothly due to the limited amount of devices it has to run on, Android is hampered by the sheer number of devices that can run on it and you will always have some devices that are a bit unstable , I think the future definately looks brighter for Google than Apple, as some people are starting to get bored with IOS and the bully boy tactics of Apple.

Palm OS Garnet had SMS call reject from prehistoric times. And the chat view of sms also. By the time the only aspect people are talking about is apps, no one talks about functionality and settings personalization, area in wich Android has the upper hand since 1.0

Rabbiddogs

sorry but these features, IOS 6 doesnt look that great. In fact even with things like Siri, if you look at the google Now voice search on Jelly Bean, tons of people have done comparisons with both of them and Google has always won. Google also has the google wallet function, and they dont force you to use their own software. Dont think google is in trouble here at all.. In fact i think this article was written just so that you could endorse a corrupt company that is on its last leg because its CEO and inventor died a year ago.

How about you tell us who Apple plans to sue next week over some black box with a square or some random overscroll function…

1. No company ever asks for an Android version first. It’s always iOS, then, if there’s time and money, we’ll make an Android companion.
2. Android users are usually less inclined to spend money on apps and piracy runs rampant among the Android community.
3. It takes, on average, 120% of the hours required to develop an iOS app to write a comparable Android app. Google’s SDK was written by programmers for programmers, not users. The result is clunky, clumsy UX.

kima

I don’t think you ever own an Android phone,

Gerald Williams

I HATE the point this author makes about Facebook. Google was right to remove Facebook integration from the core of their OS. It’s all about choice.

I have a Facebook account, but I rarely use it anymore. Once I got forced to move to the timeline view with no easy way to clear past data, I bit the bullet, spent a weekend removing all past activity, and locked the rest down so only I can see my profile. If Facebook isn’t going to give me an easy option to make my information relatively private, I’m not going to use their service.

By removing Facebook integration but still allowing the link there to exist, Google has given me a choice on whether or not I want Facebook to do annoying things like fill in my contact list with “Facebook friends” or send records of everything I do to Facebook to use for whatever purposes.

jahz

Android you can download a siri app and all ,you have 4 keys on the bottom for better navigation and 3g/4g tether and Google wallet that lets you use your credit card on your phone with nfc you can just say Apple and android are equal

Darren Rockwell

A lot of mistakes in this article. Have you used an Android phone in the last two years?

When people write these articles, they don’t know enough to make it informative. A lot of what people say android has over iPhones can be added when you jailbreak, just like some of those things that iPhones have can be added via 3rd party apps to androids. I had widgets, turn by turn navi, custom mail features, ect since the iPhone 3G came out. Most of everything else thats been missing from iPhones are almost always available in jailbreak. Even Facebook integration. Customization? Winter board, dreamboard…springtomize…whatever. You can even make it have the android interface if you wanted to for some reason. I think it’s just the price. There’s no argue for that, they cost a lot.

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